‘Sugar’ mummy

Just as the living make money from the dead — by selling funeral services and burial plots — those who passed away earn from the undead. 

The late “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, generates money through the use of his image, his name, his songs, and his investments when he was alive. BuzzFeed estimated the “Thriller” singer’s revenues this year at $105 million, including from ticket sales of “MJ: The Musical” playing in multiple cities in the United States.

Other dead musicians and their estimated income this year as compiled by BuzzFeed are (Pink Floyd founder and keyboardist) Richard Wright, $81 million; Miles Davis, $21 million; Elvis Presley, $17 million; Bob Marley, $13 million; John Lennon, $12 million; and Prince, $11 million. 

Meanwhile, Graziella Dall’Oglio of Borgo Virgilio town in Italy’s Mantua province, also yields a modest 53,000 euros per year since she died in 2022 at age 82. 

The amount was the pension of her husband that she collected when he died, plus income from her land. Dall’Oglio’s son benefited from the pension by continuously claiming it until lately. 

On 16 November, the 57-year-old son, an unemployed former nurse, had to personally renew his mother’s identity card at the municipal office to continue receiving the pension. However, the pension office clerk noticed something off from Mrs. Dall’Oglio’s face: the shadow of a beard, neck hair, and heavy makeup. 

The clerk alerted authorities who asked the “old lady” to return the following day. 

The next day, footage from the municipal office’s surveillance camera showed the applicant arriving in a car when Mrs. Dall’Oglio didn’t have a driver’s license. The mayor and police confronted the son disguised as Mrs. Dall’Oglio. With his cover blown, authorities next went to his mother’s house where they found her mummified body in the laundry room closet, wrapped in sleeping bags, CNN reports. 

Police said the son did not report his mother’s death to authorities to claim the pension money. They charged him with concealing a corpse, fraud against the state, impersonation, and forgery of a public document, according to CNN.